STEVENS POINT – Members of Portage County’s Capital Improvements/Economic Development Committee seemed to reject the idea of spending just more than $19 million to build a new health care center during a discussion Monday afternoon.

The health care center proposal is one of 57 projects that are part of the county’s capital improvement plan for 2015-2020, presented earlier this month Portage County Executive Patty Dreier. If approved by the County Board, the projects would cost an estimated $1.8 million through 2015 and more than $60 million during the next five years, although no overall total has been determined yet.

The committee has until August to review and revise Dreier's plan before voting on its own recommendation to send to the County Board. The committee was scheduled to discuss and possibly vote on the capital improvement plan, but the decision was postponed until next week due to the absence of committee member Perry Pazdernik. The committee will meet at 5 p.m. Aug. 4 to take up the issue again.

But members of the committee in attendance Monday seemed to be either unconvinced or outright against the health care center proposal. County Board Chairman Phil Idsvoog said he wouldn’t support a new health care center until he sees a way to operate it without continuing to spend tax dollars on it, and even then suggested the public should have a say in whether the project should move forward. Idsvoog said the county has paid more than $16.7 million during the past decade to operate the center.

“It’s not a mandate, and it’s supposed to support itself. It doesn’t,” Idsvoog said.

Idsvoog added that not enough has been done to explore options like pairing with a private business to operate the center.

Jim Gifford said the proposal to build the health care center in 2016 is not a doable time frame, and the project shouldn’t have been put into the capital improvement plan. He suggested that a concept and design should be developed before making any decision on what to do about the center.

“We’ve had other items like the jail that have been in this plan for a while, and there is no plan to construct it yet,” Gifford said.

Stan Potocki said he didn’t believe the health care center proposal included costs such as staffing that would have to be considered in a discussion about a new building. Don Jankowski said the county is faced with a decision of how much tax money they want to continue to spend on the health care center and how long they want to continue to do that.

Dreier has pushed for building a new health care facility rather than spend an estimated $14 million to remodel the current Portage County Health Care Center on Whiting Avenue, which has been in operation since 1931 and houses 100 beds. Dreier has referenced an analysis of the center completed in 2002 by Milwaukee-based consulting firm E JJ Olson & Associates that called for the building to be updated or replaced.

The center's administrator, Dave Rademacher, has said the facility is outdated and needs to replace multiple boilers, as well as its air conditioning system, at an estimated cost of about $2.6 million.

Nathan Vine can be reached at 715-345-2252. Find him on Twitter as @SPJNathanVine.